One Wild Night at Benaulim – The Story

Few years ago, when i was in Goa, visiting some of my friends, we decided to chill out at the beach. Lets call these friends Eenie, Meanie, Mynie and Me. Eenie and Meanie had a lot of work so Mynie and Me helped out and by the time we were done it was 8 pm. We were all tired and wanted to wind out so we drove down to Benaulim beach. this beach is located in south Goa and is a lovely place to spend time with friends.﻿

Now we reached this beach around 8:30pm and immediately started looking for the nearest watering hole (read beach shack). We landed at Roger’s Shack (Inset) and grabbed the last table, where the waves met the shore. We didn’t waste any time and got down to business right away (meaning water from the watering hole…You get my drift..).

BEER COUNT : 4 +

It had been a long day so we were feeling good right away. The cool breeze, the chilled beer, the comfortable cane chairs and the beautiful ladies were having their effect. We were doing a lot of CB(refer CB Radio 101)and the night wore on.

BEER COUNT : 8+

At this point we happened to see that there were many musical instruments lying around on a stage like area. Now, Eenie plays the guitar and sings too. So we asked the waiter to get the guitar for us. As luck would have it, the strings were all broken and there weren’t any new strings so were kinda disappointed. This is when we met our host for the evening, Roger himself. Roger is a chilled out character. Loves the beach, loves Goa, loves his beer and loves his music. He told us that a live band performed every Saturday (or Tuesday.. I don’t’ remember.. at this point i had reached a happy place..:D) and that the gear belonged to them. He said he could arrange a guitar for us if we wanted to play some music. We agreed and he asked one of his waiter’s to get the guitar.

BEER COUNT : 15+

This is where the wild night commenced. It was about 10:30pm by the time we got the guitar. We started singing our all time favourites, Hotel California, Summer of ’69, Alice, Country Roads, Roobaroo so and so forth. By this time the Beer count was over 20 and Mynie was feeling happy..:). Roger was attending to other customers and by around 11:30 pm most of the other customers were winding up. We on the other hand had just started. Roger grabbed a beer and a chair himself and joined us. Now this dude started strumming a tune on the guitar and boy did he do a great job. We were all clapping along and singing along and having a great time. Then Roger went inside to attend to some other stragglers like us.

BEER COUNT : 20+

We started singing authentic Goan songs like Mando’s, “Haanv Saiba Poltoddi Voita“, some more which at this point had become all the same for me. Mynie was getting happier and Eenie was playing louder. Meanie and me were singing at the top of our voices. At this point Mynie decided to remix all the songs. Whichever song we started ended with the world famous “Sutta“song. CB was at its height and we were planning on taking over the world with the empty bottles of beer..:D

BEER COUNT : 25+

The tide was rising and the waves were lapping at our feet now, but we couldn’t care less. We were having the time of our lives. But then some sense prevailed and we pulled the table a little behind( nobody likes soggy socks..:D). Roger must have thought we’ll drown in the high tide because he came and offered us to sit inside the shack. Now at this point Eenie had about 3.5 beers in him. I probably had a beer and a half (Yeah… i was done..:D) and meanie and Mynie had the rest. So we were all superman or spider-man and nobody could tell us what to do. So we said “Eh.. Noooooooo!!! We ain’t comin in maaan. We be the children of the ocean . Bring us our drink and begone with you.” (I’m pretty sure we just looked at Roger with glazed eyes. I’m just speculating what was going through our collective minds at this point..:D)

BEER COUNT : 30+

This is where everything gets foggy. Roger came to our table and told us that there were some pretty ladies in the shack who wanted to listen to some authentic Goan songs. We refused the first time around but the ladies were very convincing (Now which superhero can refuse his Lois Lane or Mary Jane..:D) We reluctantly agreed and went inside the shack. The time was around 12:30-1:00 am and we were on cloud number 9 and counting. The beers kept coming and i lost count at this point ( at this point that was all i did, keep count) Meanie and Mynie were ordering beers left and right,even though the bar-tender had shut down the bar. Roger wasn’t complaining and so weren’t my dear friends.

BEER COUNT : 35+

Roger introduced the ladies to us and us to them.There were two of them. Names were exchanged and we inquired about their nationalities. Now these ladies told us they were from Palestine on a tour of the country and had spent 9 months all over. They had just got in from Pune and had brought a friend of theirs with them. This friend was a guy, an Indian, but a Wannabe ( you know fake accent, three fourth’s, goatee et all). Mynie heard Palestine and the next thing he says is “Israel? Israel?” We must have come out as total nut-jobs, nincompoops really cause the girls exchanged looks and corrected us “Not Israel. Palestine. Different Country” (Middle eastern accented English implied)For some reason they did not ask us to leave. They wanted to listen to Goan songs and we were the only channel on at night…:D So we started singing some Mando’s. We made up all the lyrics and sang whatever we felt like and Roger knew that but he couldn’t care less. his customers were having a good time and buying more booze. Meanie and Mynie had by now made an arrangement with one of the waiters and all they asked him to do was get beers and he made them appear. Meanie also had a few beers tucked away in the sand just in-case the bar ran out..:D How thoughtful…!!

BEER COUNT : Why bother!!!!!

Now the aforementioned wannabe friend of the ladies was being a PIA (Pain In the place where the sun don’t shine ). He had this sour look on his face like he was about to give birth or something and all of us collectively disliked him. so we decided to teach him a lesson. We asked him to start singing with us and whenever he would start singing Mynie would start the chorus of the Sutta song “BC sutta, mujhe sutta na mila” at the top of his voice and the ladies followed suit for the first two three times but they had been in India long enough to realize that it was some expletive and then they just giggled and smiled. This was irritating the PIA even more. But we were having a ball and decided to remix just about any song. This went on for a long time and before you knew it the ladies called it a night,. they thanked us for the good time and left. We didn’t even realize they left, cause the party was on. We sat there for another half hour or so and decided to grab one for the road. So Meanie and Mynie got out the beer’s from the sand and passed around the beers.

BEER COUNT : really now..!!!!

The time was around 2:30 am (I think) and we were all Happy (Meanie and Mynie were more than happy and Eenie was the designated driver, yeah we are responsible drinkers, and I was well lets just say if I was a bird i would be an Eagle) Roger decided we had had enough and asked us to drive safely. (He didn’t want to ask us to leave outright) well we took the hint and started stumbling to the car. Now weren’t done just yet. We climbed on the embankment and decided to hold a pissing contest ( cut us some slack ok. we were all loaded and needed to relieve ourselves. What better way. Guy’s you’re with me on this one right…:D.. sorry gals we can be uncouth). well with no decisive winner ( we were all too drunk anyway )we decided to drive back home. How we reached home none of us remembers accurately, I was asleep and when we reached home i just got down from the car and dropped on the bed. Eenie helped meanie to his bed and Mynie probably found his way to his bed. All we know is we got up late the next morning and tried to recall where we were.

Till today whenever the four of us meet we still reminisce about that night. Although we didn’t do anything crazy like get a tramp stamp or a piercing the sheer number of beer’s between 4 guys is enough to compensate for the craziness..:D Whenever we head back to Benaulim we make it a point to sit at Roger’s and grab a beer or two. This was one of those “There are some things Money can’t buy “ situations and bought us a little closer to each other. Like I said earlier “All you need is a little CB to bring people together and hold them together”

This is the story of how we made it through One Wild Night at Benaulim Beach.

This is Me signing off…

Cheers!!!

PS: Up until we got the guitar everything is fact. After that a lot of it is fact and as recalled by Eenie, Meanie, Mynie and Me but quite a lot is pure conjecture. We just put two and two together and hoped to god that it turned out to be four..:D

PPS : The number of beers is also pure conjecture but we know for a fact that we had 45+ beers. Please bear with any typo’s.